Bernadette Peters devotes herself to dogs

STEVE ROTHAUS, Mcclatchy Newspapers

Published 5:30 am, Friday, March 14, 2008

We're not being catty reporting that Bernadette Peters' illustrious career has gone to the dogs.

Peters — "the great Broadway musical star," according to no less an authority than Hello, Dolly! composer Jerry Herman — devotes herself these days to her pets, Kramer and Stella, and all the abandoned animals of New York.

"What I wanted to do was help shelter animals, to figure out how to solve this problem," Peters said.

Peters, the winner of two Tony Awards and nominated for five others, last starred on Broadway in 2003's revival of Gypsy.

For years, Peters has contributed to children's causes and AIDS charities. A decade ago while starring in Annie Get Your Gun, she and pal Mary Tyler Moore began an annual event called Broadway Barks, which raises money for New York-area shelters. Recently, Peters was approached about writing a children's book, her first. She agreed.

Then her editor said the book needed a song. "I never wrote a song in my life," Peters said. "I was in an airplane and I needed a lullaby. Suddenly, the music and lyrics came to me."

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Peters' book, Broadway Barks (Blue Apple, $18), about a homeless pooch named Douglas, will be published in April. It is illustrated by Liz Murphy and dedicated to Michael Wittenberg, Peters' husband who died at 43 in a 2005 helicopter crash.

Inside the Broadway Barks jacket will be a CD of Peters reading the book and singing her lullaby, Kramer's Song.

Kramer's Song is named for Peters' older pet, an 11-year-old "shaggy dog, Heinz 57 variety," she said. Peters' other pooch, Stella, is a 10-year-old pit bull.

Her Miami Beach neighbor Richard Jay-Alexander said that when Peters first sang Kramer's Song for him over the telephone, "my jaw dropped."